Friendship is Card Games: Leap of Faith · 1:31pm Mar 30th, 2014
See you next week!
I kid, I kid. Though that certainly seemed to be what Granny Smith thought the tonic was doing for her. A few thoughts, and we'll get to the (non-)actual cards:
I guess the Flimflam brothers' special talent really is apple-based get-rich-quick schemes. A bit of a narrow niche, but they seem to make it work. (Thought I was hoping there would be some wondrous piece of magitech for Apple Bloom to look upon and be inspired by. Nope. Just a juicer.)
Perhaps the greatest irony here is that in today's market, the brothers could probably sell their product honestly and claim many of the same benefits. Just add the words "organic," "all-natural," "antioxidants," and maybe some kale. Health nuts will buy anything with kale.
Until proven otherwise, I'm assuming that Silver Shill is Silver Spoon's uncle. That whole family seems destined for minion-hood.
With the possible exception of Rarity's rainbow thread, each of the keys seems to reflect what the recipient wanted to do at the Grand Galloping Gala. Dash got hers from the Wonderbolts, Pinkie got hers from partying, Fluttershy got hers from exotic creatures, and Applejack got money spent on apple products. Heck, Coco Pommel is about fifty times as noble as Blueblood...
Also, dancing Granny Smith appears to be a thing now. I approve wholeheartedly.
And now for the cards. (If you're wondering why Fast Talk has flashback, remember that this is the second episode with Flim and Flam.)
Cautious Skeptic 2W
Creature — Pony
Spells and abilities that target Cautious Skeptic cost 2 more to cast and to activate.
"Are you sure this is safe?"
2/3
Harsh Lesson 1U
Instant
Counter target spell if it has the same name as a card in a graveyard.
Draw a card.
Experience is a good teacher, but far from a kind one.
Swimming Hole 1U
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant land
Enchanted land is an Island.
1U: Attach Swimming Hole to target land.
"Easy as digging a hole."
—Applejack, Bearer of Honesty
Aquabatic All-Star 2U
Creature — Pony
U: Target Pony, Pegasus, or Unicorn gains islandwalk until end of turn.
Most ponies don't learn to swim beyond the pony paddle, but the exceptions are exceptional indeed.
2/2
Synchronized Aquabatics 2U
Instant
Up to two target creatures you control gain hexproof and islandwalk until end of turn. Untap those creatures.
"Okay, fine, it was pretty cool. But it's not a sport."
—Rainbow Dash, Bearer of Loyalty
Open Mind 2UU
Enchantment
If a spell or ability would cause you to draw one or more cards, it causes you to draw twice that many cards instead.
If a spell or ability would cause you to discard one or more cards, it causes you discard twice that many cards instead.
Chain of Deception 3U
Instant
Turn target nontoken creature face down. That creature's controller may return a land he or she controls to its owner's hand. If the player does, he or she may copy this spell and choose new targets for the copy. (Face-down creatures are 2/2.)
Burden of Age 1B
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a -1/-1 counter on enchanted creature.
"Nopony over seventy ever talks about 'the dignity of age.'"
—Granny Smith
Potion Peddlers 2B
Creature — Unicorn Mercenary
2, Discard a card: You gain 5 life. Any player may activate this ability.
"Step right up, fillies and gentlecolts! Leave your common sense at the door, because there's nothing common about our product!"
1/3
High Dive 1R
Instant
Target creature you control gets +X/+0 and gains flying until end of turn, where X is the number of Mountains you control. If X is greater than the number of Islands you control, sacrifice that creature at the beginning of the next end step.
Hot Pursuit XR
Sorcery
Target creature gets +X/+0 and gains provoke until end of turn.
"You can't outrun an earth pony. You can only delay the inevitable."
—Rainbow Dash, Bearer of Loyalty
Confidence Boost 1G
Instant
Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Regenerate that creature.
Believe in yourself and the impossible becomes effortless.
Youthful Exploits 1G
Sorcery
Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature that entered the battlefield this turn.
Flashback 2G
"I did a lot of stupid things as a filly, but that's the time for them."
—Granny Smith
Spry as a Sapling 1GG
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and has "Untap this creature during each other player's untap step."
Time weathers earth ponies much in the same way it erodes stone; there may be cosmetic damage, but the core remains solid.
Cathartic Confession 3G
Sorcery
Reveal any number of cards in your hand. You gain life equal to the total converted mana cost of those cards.
The harder it is to tell the truth, the better you feel afterwards.
Prismatic Restoration 5G
Sorcery
For each color among permanents you control, return a card from your graveyard to your hand at random.
Exile Prismatic Restoration.
Even after forfeiting the Elements, the Bearers never strayed from their path for long.
Panacebo 2
Artifact
3, T: Proliferate. For each counter put on a permanent or player this way, remove a counter of that kind from that permanent or player at the beginning of the next end step.
Fast Talk U(rg)
Instant
The next spell you cast this turn can be cast as though it had flash and can't be countered by spells or abilities.
Flashback 1URG
Concealing Steam UR
Instant
Target creature you control gains hexproof until end of turn. For each other spell or ability targeting that creature, Concealing Steam deals 1 damage to that spell or ability's controller.
Embarrassing Illness 1(ub)
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets -3/-0, and its activated abilities can't be activated.
In a world where friendship is literally magic, it's hard to work wonders when you don't want to be seen in public.
"Flim Flam Miracle Curative Tonic" 1(gw)
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on "Flim Flam Miracle Curative Tonic".
Sacrifice "Flim Flam Miracle Curative Tonic": Remove X counters from among any number of target permanents, where X is the number of verse counters on "Flim Flam Miracle Curative Tonic".
Trusted Sponsor 1(gw)(gw)
Creature — Pony
Soulbond
As long as Trusted Sponsor is paired with another creature, that creature has indestructible.
2/2
Injured Audience 3(wb)
Creature — Pony
Injured Audience enters the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it.
The dangers of Ponyville leave most of its residents unscathed. Most.
4/4
Yeah, that's what Flim and Flam kind of represent: modern business practices in a place where the people with morals actually win.
The weird thing about the brothers is they're absolutely great salesmen... with no practical business sense. Short-term gain, long term loss.
What always struck me about the Flim-Flam brothers was that the fandom painted them as swindlers even though in their first episode they actually didn't do anything deceptive or illegal: their cider machine did exactly what they said it would do, and if they had simply picked one of the good barrels rather than one of the bad ones for their victory celebration at the end, they would indeed have taken over the apple business in Ponyville entirely legitimately (because apparently the "heated moment wager" counts as a legally binding contract in Equestria
). But, the fandom instantly made the leap from "unscrupulous businessmen" to "outright con artists" in its presentation of them, and now it seems canon has caught up with it.
I feel like Burden of Age would work better as "Enchanted creature has...", but it's mostly an aesthetic difference, so w/e. Also, you forgot to capitalize Embarrassing illness
I feel like "Harsh Lesson" should either cost another colorless mana or not draw a card. Both counter-spells and (instant speed) card drawing are powerful abilities but the restrictions on this are, while not strict, something easily played around (especially in limited). Kind of on the line for me.
Also on the line of "Seems too powerful" is "Swimming Hole". But, it's not, not really. Seems like a good means of shutting down Valakut decks.
In the "Treading rules ground that should never be walked on" camp is "Trusted Sponsor".
All Soulbond creatures grant the ability to both parts of the pair. It seems here like you are wanting something more along the lines of Flowering Lumberknot, but in reverse, instead of a creature that has Soulbond itself.
Just dropping Soulbond from the card though would leave people a little confused because there would be no straight up reference for them to grab onto. Unless they have good long term, term memory (like some people around here do).
All the others seem good though.
I really need to catch up with he episodes, "Somepony to Watch Over Me" was the last one I saw.
1966385
That's what happens when the decision-makers don't swaddle themselves in protective layers of bureaucracy and corruption. They leave themselves exposed to dissatisfied customers.
1966426
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The red mana school of economics. Unfortunately, the goal isn't dealing twenty damage to the customer.
Hmm. You know, given my headcanon for Babs Seed's special talent, there may be a story in her working with the Flimflams.
(My guess? Her talent lies in entrepreneurial investment. She knows the best places to plant seed money.
1966450
Why go to all the effort and expense of designing and inventing an artificially intelligent automobile/cider press when you can make bits with nothing more than a hoof juicer and a plant in the audience?
1966539
Since the two are largely equivalent, I decided to go with the version that had fewer words.
Thanks for catching the typo. Fixed now.
1966555
I'm not sure about Harsh Lesson. Yes, mill decks might be able to make good use of it, but even if someone's playing the full compliment of a given card, one of three specific cards has to be in the graveyard, since one of the four is already on the stack. In Limited, that number could potentially be higher, but in practice, the spell is virtually useless. Compare Mindreaver or Grimoire Thief. The odds are slightly improved in a mirror match, but then the opponent has Lessons as well. More often than not, Harsh Lesson is a strictly worse Obsessive Search.
Of course, I could be wrong. It probably needs playtesting.
Trusted Sponsor, on the other hand, is breaking a convention, not a rule. There's no rule that says soulbond creatures have to give the boost to both creatures, or that they have to give a boost at all. There could easily be a black creature with soulbond and "At the beginning of your upkeep, if CARDNAME is unpaired, you lose 1 life." Check CR 702.94 if you don't believe me.
I didn't break a rule there anymore than Wizards broke rules when they printed half of Future Sight. Just because it hasn't been done doesn't mean it's not allowed. Granted, innovation for its own sake isn't necessarily a good thing. Enchantment lands would almost certainly be a bad idea. But designing Magic as much about finding the unexplored old ground as it is breaking new, and I don't see the harm in this variant of soulbond. It's basically a tweak on Aegis Angel.
1966738
"Harsh Lesson" wouldn't be very good in limited at all. I pretty much only play limited these days (I only really have the time for release events) and normally the only card I have more than two copies of are basic lands, which are unlimited in number during such events. It's one of those cards in your pool that if you're running blue will be "If it comes up I might side it in" sort. But in constructed it'd be good, if still easily played around.
As for Soulbond, I know it's not a hard and fast rule but the flavor of the mechanic is two people teaming up and helping one another, both gaining something from it. The spirit of the mechanic is the "I help you, you help me" bit.
The Soulbonder gains something from helping another and the are both stronger for it. If you want a pairing creature to not gain the ability then Soulbond is not the right mechanic.
It's not always about the rules as written, but how a mechanic feels.
Very technically I know that all "Soulbond" does is the pairing and it is the rest of the rules text that makes that pair matter you really need to think about what you do when you stray off from the norm. Since every other creature with Soulbond gains the ability it gives this is very sorely out of place.
I can't just think of cards in a vacuum, as just relating to the episode that spawned their creation. I look at these cards and think of how they work with others, both real and the others you have made.
And even in a vacuum, with just these fan made cards themselves, "Trusted Sponsor" feels very wrong in how it works because of the mechanic it uses.